VacationSelector
The Fisherman's Bastion, Budapest
BudapestThe Fisherman's Bastion
The red cable car above Wellington, Wellington
WellingtonThe red cable car above Wellington

Photos: Budapest by Perituss, CC0; Wellington by lumoplank, CC0.

Budapest or Wellington?

Our verdict in twelve categories, each scored against the same fixed benchmark cities, and the climate month by month, so you can choose for your trip.

Choose Budapest for

  • wellness
  • culture and sights
  • nightlife

What lies behind each score is written up on Budapest’s own page.

Choose Wellington for

  • nature and the outdoors
  • beaches

What lies behind each score is written up on Wellington’s own page.

Scoreboard

Twelve categories on one fixed scale from 0 to 100. The shaded stretch is the gap between the two.

Beaches & swimming. Budapest 25, Wellington 33: Wellington leads by 8 points.
Food & drink. Budapest 63, Wellington 62: Budapest leads by 1 points.
Culture & sights. Budapest 80, Wellington 44: Budapest leads by 36 points.
Nightlife. Budapest 78, Wellington 45: Budapest leads by 33 points.
Nature & outdoors. Budapest 58, Wellington 78: Wellington leads by 20 points.
Day trips. Budapest 68, Wellington 40: Budapest leads by 28 points.
Good for families. Budapest and Wellington are level on 62.
Getting around. Budapest 78, Wellington 68: Budapest leads by 10 points.
Shopping & style. Budapest 55, Wellington 42: Budapest leads by 13 points.
Affordability. Budapest 62, Wellington 33: Budapest leads by 29 points.
Live music & performing arts. Budapest 76, Wellington 56: Budapest leads by 20 points.
Wellness & relaxation. Budapest 98, Wellington 30: Budapest leads by 68 points.
0255075100

What lies behind each score is written up on the two cities’ own pages: Budapest and Wellington.

Your match

Pick a travel style or drag the sliders, and both match scores follow your weighting.

Budapest
Best match
67match

Wins on wellness and culture and sights with your weighting.

Wellington
49match

Wins on nature and the outdoors and beaches with your weighting.

What matters to you?

When should you go?

Pick your month. The climate figures are measured averages, not a forecast.

Budapest in July

27 °Cdaytime high
17 °Cnight-time low
75 mmrain in the month
10 hsunshine a day
No seasea
16 hdaylight a day

Wellington in July

12 °Cdaytime high
7 °Cnight-time low
111 mmrain in the month
4 hsunshine a day
12 °Csea
10 hdaylight a day

Daytime high, °C

0°10°20°30°JFMAMJJASOND

Rainfall in the month, mm

0255075100125JFMAMJJASOND
BudapestWellington

Where the figures come from

Wellington's sunshine is measured 47 km from the centre, at Paraparaumu Aerodrome.

Temperature and rainfall are climate normals, averaged over the years shown. Budapest: 1991-2020 normals, Budapest Met Center (2.1 km from centre). Wellington: 1961-1990 (sunshine 1991-2020) normals, Wellington Aerodrome Aws (5.3 km from centre).

Before you go

MeasureBudapestWellington
Official languageHungarianEnglish, New Zealand Sign Language, Māori
CurrencyForint (HUF)New Zealand Dollar (NZD)
SocketsCF230 V, 50 HzI230 V, 50 Hz
Driving sideRightLeft
Time zoneUTC+1, UTC+2 in summerUTC+12, UTC+13 in summer
Emergency number112111
Elevation117 m0 m
Main airportBudapest Liszt Ferenc International Airport (BUD)18 km from centre157 non-stop destinationsWellington International Airport (WLG)5 km from centre20 non-stop destinations
Public holidays this year13 days12 days

By the numbers

MeasureBudapestWellington
City population1,675,777216,200
People per km²3,191487
Museums within 10 km8112
UNESCO World Heritage sites within 50 km10
Swim season, months above 21 °C-None

Where else could you go?

Every comparison below shares a destination with this one, so you can follow Budapest or Wellington somewhere new.

Browse every destination

Sources

Structured data from Wikidata (CC0). Weather data by Meteostat. Meteorological data provided by NOAA, DWD and others. Rainfall where no rain gauge is within 25 km is from the TerraClimate 1991-2020 climatology (Abatzoglou et al. 2018, Scientific Data), read at the city. Airport data from OurAirports (public domain). Tourism statistics from Eurostat, © European Union, reused under CC BY 4.0. Public holidays from Nager.Date (MIT). Exchange rates via Frankfurter, based on European Central Bank reference rates. Non-stop route lists from the "Airlines and destinations" tables on English Wikipedia airport articles, by Wikipedia contributors, reused under CC BY-SA 4.0. Currency from the ISO 4217 register maintained by SIX, cross-checked against country data from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0). Price level from World Bank open data (PPP conversion factor for private consumption and official exchange rate), CC BY 4.0. Time zones from GeoNames (CC BY 4.0); clock offsets computed from the IANA time zone database. Sea surface temperature from NOAA OISST v2.1, NOAA Physical Sciences Laboratory. Daylight hours computed from each destination's latitude using the NOAA solar position algorithm.

Category scores are our editorial verdict under rubric v3, each placed against the same fixed benchmark cities; the climate figures are measured. How the scores are set. Snapshot generated 2026-11-01. Daily budgets are estimates from country price levels.